The overall objectives of the project are to determine the biochemical basis for the abnormalities that exist in lipid structure and metabolism between normal and neoplastic tissue. The possibilities of regulating lipid metabolism as a means of controlling neoplastic growth are also being assessed. We have accumulated a mass of data that indicates the metabolism of the naturally occurring octadecenoate isomers and the positional isomers of the dietary cis and trans octadecenoate isomers in the hepatoma differs from normal liver. A number of experiments aimed at determining the biochemical basic responsible for the observed difference in metabolism between these two tissues have been undertaken. Our experiments have indicated that the lipid metabolism of the host animal is affected will in advance of detectable tumor growth. An effort will be made to pinpoint the biochemical step(s) that are affected and to characterize the effector. The biosynthesis of octadecenoate isomers in normal and neoplastic tissue as affected by a number of metabolic analogues will also be investigated.